Guide to Hosting
Mafia is an epic game of skill, persuasion, deception, strategy, participation, cruelty and cunning. It is a contest of wits; a championship of cleverness. It is intense, unforgiving, relentless, dominating and amazing. Some people have had Mafia dreams. Some people drive across the city to get better wireless to play Mafia. People ignore their workload to play Mafia. Mafia is addicting. Mafia is fun. Mafia is wickedly cool, awesome and pulse-poundingly exciting. If a game is designed well and hosted well and played well, it can be a work of art. You don't need to be the most experienced Mafia player to host, but you should definitely understand all of Mafia basics, so the Newbie's Guide to Mafia is a must. Note that the purpose of the current guide is to provide helpful information for game designers and hosts. For Game Designers and Future Hosts Suggestions and Tips for future hosts Claiming a theme Golden Rule of Hosting While you are a host, remember the golden rule: "Don't intervene too much in the flow of the game!". This includes, but is not limited to, any forms of aiding one side or another during the game, helping with inactivity, or hinting towards something they might have missed, or assuming too much when reading one of their posts. Be proactive, or at least be there for them when they need the host, but give the players all the breathing space they need and let them play the game! As hosts we can only sit back and watch the game unfold. Sometimes the players make a mess of our game. Sometimes they make it come to life beautifully. Remember, we are storytellers. We do not control the game! Advanced game design issues There are a lot of things to look for when designing your game: *First and foremost when designing roles, a prospective host must anticipate all role clashes - how active and passive abilities can interfere with each other (such as "what happens when an indestructible and unstoppable bullet is fired at impenetrable metal"?) AND how dynamic actions can interfere with other actions during the same cycle. *Secondly, a host must decide how information will flow during the game, which actions and what information will be leaked in day / night posts and which will be available only to certain factions. *Thirdly, balance must be checked during design and re-checked (preferably by a 3rd party) after the design looks completed. Order/precedence of actions Precedence Based System (OOP) Order of Actions (OOA) Order of Submission (OOS) What should Day& Night Posts include Game Design Tips Game Balance Hosting a Mafia Signups Phase *Once your game is next-in-queue and the one before that started and completed at least one cycle, feel free to start your signups. *Always post an up-to-date version of the roles and rules with the signups and be prepared to answer questions people might have during the signups phase. *Always give people in the signups thread an indication on the start of the game: either immediately after the current game is finished, or after a certain date (depending on your IRL availability to host). *After the current game is finished, your signups are full and either the current host or one of the Mods signals you (via PM or ShoutBox), create your game thread, 'separately '(see next section). Game thread - The Checklist MafiaManiac specific instructions for hosting Rule breakers External Links Previous Mafias and Mafia sites * Check out the History of Mafia project and the Games by Eras List for previous Mafias (including links to the original game threads). * Check out the places where Mafia is played / was played in this form ("Den Mafia"): Mafia Forums External Mafia-related sites *Wikipedia: Mafia party game description on Wikipedia *MafiaWiki by the MafiaScum site. Not the most coherent site (and the actual games on MafiaScum are nothing compared to here and our affiliates) but it has some good stuff on it. *Original Mafia Ruleset! - The game has evolved a lot since, and definitely for the better : ) Enjoy hosting Mafia, it's an experience you will not forget ;)__NOEDITSECTION__ Category:Guides